Molly G

“We sat in an awkward silence for some time. I wondered why, after all he had been through with his mother, Eugene welcomed another depressive into his life. Wasn’t he afraid of the consequences? How did he escape the contagious effects of mental illness?”
― Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression

“White women who suffer from mental illness are depicted as idle, spoiled, or just plain hysterical. Black men are demonized and pathologized. Black women with psychological problems are certainly not seen as geniuses; we are generally not labeled ‘hysterical’ or ‘eccentric’ or even ‘pathological’. When a black woman suffers from a mental disorder, the overwhelming opinion is that she is weak. And weakness in black women is intolerable.”
― Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression

“I think sometimes that if only I were well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.
But I find that I get pretty tired when I try.”
― Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper & Other Thirteen Short Stories

“The illusion of strength has been and continues to be of major significance to me as a black woman. The one myth that I have had to endure my entire life is that of my supposed birthright to strength. Black women are supposed to be strong – caretakers, nurtures, healers of other people – any of the twelve dozen variations of Mammy. Emotional hardship is supposed to be built into the structure of our lives. It went along with the territory of being both black and female in a society that completely undervalues the lives of black people and regards all women as second-class citizens. It seemed that suffering, for a black woman, was part of the package.

Or so I thought.”
― Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression